Fellow World Cup finalist and world number 17 South Korea is the biggest hurdle for the Philippine women’s national football team for the latter’s debut in the upcoming 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou this September.
The Taegeuk Ladies, who recently suffered a 0-2 loss versus Colombia in the ongoing FIFA World Cup, are three-time bronze medalists in Asia’s most prestigious sporting event.
They are grouped with the Filipinas in Group E of the tournament alongside world number 50 Myanmar and world number 78 Hong Kong.
The Philippines and Myanmar are tournament debutantes while Hong Kong was a quarterfinalist in the 2018 edition of the quadrennial meet.
The Filipinas are currently on a high, winning their first ever World Cup game, upsetting host New Zealand, 1-0, last Tuesday.
However, they previously lost to the Koreans, 0-2, in the 2022 AFC Asian Cup semifinals and against Myanmar, 0-1, in the 2023 Southeast Asian Games opener.
The nationals vanquished Hong Kong, 4-0, in the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers last April.
All group winners and the top three group runners-up will qualify for the Asian Games quarterfinals.
The reigning ASEAN Football Federation champions are raring to be the first ever Southeast Asian team to enter the knockout phase of the World Cup if they beat Norway on Sunday for the final match of Group A.
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